A Special Celebration

posted by Aunty Cindy and a few Special Friends

A few nights ago in the Lair...

Rubbing sleep from his eyes, Paolo grumbled aloud as he descended a back staircase. "I hate pulling late night duty. The Banditas always seem to want snacks when it's my turn."

He traversed the short hallway into the side entrance of the kitchen and stood in slack-jawed surprise at Sven working feverishly over a tray of goodies. The unmistakable smell of Joanie's chocolate chip cookies filled the air.

Before Paolo could recover himself to speak, the big Swede tossed an oven mitt at him. "Good! Just in time to remove the first batch of cookies."

Paolo snagged the mitt in mid-air and rushed to the oven. Late night snacks were usually the venue of Sven's assistant Lars, who tended toward serving popcorn or chips and dip. However lately, the newest cabana boy Jean-Pierre had been training specifically to relieve Sven in the kitchen, but he was nowhere to be seen tonight.

"I can't believe you're preparing the snacks tonight," Paolo mused aloud as he pulled first one cookie sheet and then another, both loaded with the fragrant little bits of heaven.

"That's because tomorrow is the BIG DAY," Sven answered, deftly piling hot cookies onto an elegant silver platter. He then shoved the platter into Paolo's left hand and a carrier filled with glasses of milk into his right. "Now get these down to the Banditas slaving away in the deadline caves while the cookies are still warm."

Paolo squinted at the calendar on the wall and saw the date March 25th circled in red with multiple exclamation points after it. "I didn't know it was a holiday."

Sven huffed in aggravation but never missed a beat in plunking more cookie dough on the baking sheets. "How long have you been in the Lair? Don't you pay attention? The calls go out tomorrow for Golden Heart and Rita finalists." When Paolo continued to look confused, Sven continued. "After the calls go out, we'll be having another blow-out extravaganza here in the Lair. Since some of the Banditas and plenty of their friends will be finalists, we'll ask THEM about getting 'the call' and maybe you'll understand."

Looking unconvinced, Paolo hurried off to deliver the milk and warm cookies while Sven shoved the refilled baking sheets into the oven.

Fast forward to the wee hours of Sunday morning...

The Lair is festooned with glittery party decorations, drinks and plenty of goodies for all the Banditas, guests, and BBs. As the celebration gets into full swing, Sven drags an embarrassed Paolo around to ask the Banditas and several of their friends about how they received their 'calls.'

First up is Golden Heart Finalist, Bandita Nancy!

It's always my ambition on Call Day to forget about the whole business. This year, my guys were out of town Thursday night, so I stayed up late and slept in. Within fifteen minutes after I'd grabbed coffee, two solicitation calls came in (and never mind that we're on the Do Not Call registry). The phone rang again, with a name and number I didn't recognize in Caller ID. Figuring it was a solicitation call, I didn't answer. Now irritated and not yet caffeinated, I had no thoughts at all about the Golden Heart.

Five minutes later, another solicitation call, this one from a charity we actually do contribute to, but still. Three in under an hour?! The phone rang again, with Caller ID showing the number and name I'd ignored earlier. I answered the phone in my I Have No Patience voice.

"Nancy, it's Linda Jones with the RWA Board," said the caller, and I thought, The board? Did I botch up something for my committee? (I'm chairing Strategic Advisory this year.) Then she rolled on with "I'm calling to tell you your manuscript finaled."

And then I remembered what day it was. I think I also remembered to thank her. Then I logged onto the computer to see who else had finaled (including Anna Sugden, yay!) and found several names I was delighted to see. As well as happy emails in my inbox. And several on the bandit loop from morning people congratulating Anna and saying, "Doesn't someone ELSE have news?" And "I WISH she would get online."

They know me well, they do, including the fact that I am so not a morning person. I couldn't have a better place to celebrate than the Lair or a better bunch of people to share the fun than the Banditas and our Buddies.

On to our other Bandita finalist, Anna (VA) S!

The experience of GH/RITA day is slightly different for me because I live in the UK and am usually 6 hours ahead of CST. This year, we haven't yet 'sprung forward' so the difference was only 5 hours. Still, it means that there's a morning of hanging around and waiting for everyone on the Board to wake up and get calling.

Like many other people, I was convinced that this would be another year where I wouldn't get the call. I'd forgotten about the date until someone reminded me on Thursday night and even then it didn't click in my poor little brain because ... I'd forgotten I'd entered! I'd been dithering about whether or not to submit an entry this year and somehow as time passed, had assumed I hadn't. LOL

Anyway, as I said, I wasn't expecting a call, so I was busying myself with revising a manuscript, when an email popped up from one of my dear friends - Lindsey Brookes - that she'd finalled. That's when I realised the calls were starting to go out. After squealing happily for her, I scanned a few loops and got back to work. Then an email popped up from a friend saying she couldn't wait to happy dance with me, when I finalled. After laughing, I was in the middle of a reply explaining why I wouldn't be a finalist, when the the phone rang. I assumed it was one of my buddies telling me they'd finalled. Instead, it was the lovely Lorraine Heath to tell me Legacy of Love was a Golden Heart finalist!

Poor Lorraine had to put up with some shocked babbling from me and some celebratory singing from lovely hubby! She handled it with grace *g*. I have to say, it was so much fun to have a call from someone I know - made it all the more special. It was also special that this time, unlike my previous two finals, my hubby was here with me ... not on a plane, halfway across the Atlantic or in an important board meeting!

One of the first emails I typed was to my lovely Banditas - who better to share the fab news with?! My happiness was doubled to see that fellow Bandita Nancy was also a finalist! It was great too to have so many BB's share the fun, here on the loop and on FB and Twitter. And, of course, it was awesome to be able to celebrate on the day Susan Mallery was here!

And now we'll move on to DOUBLE Rita finalist, Virginia Kantra:

You know that scene in "He's Just Not That Into You" where Ginnifer Goodwin is staring at the phone, willing it to ring?

That was me on Friday. And it didn't ring. Not once. All morning. Not for several hours in the afternoon. Which, I told myself firmly, was okay.

Take a deep breath. Work on the next book. Be happy for your friends who have finaled.

I was mopping up cat yack from the carpet when the answering machine picked up.

"YAY YAY YAY!" yelled my friend Carolyn. "Congratuations! Call me."

I swallowed hard and called back. “I’m not a finalist,” I said. Quickly, to get it over with.

“But..." She sounded confused. Embarrassed. I knew the feeling. "Why would someone have texted me that you were?”

“Because she’s an idiot?” I suggested.

“But...Are you sure?”

Of course I was sure. But because I am that big a fool – or an optimist – I unzipped my purse. Looked at my cell phone, which was lit up like a Frasier fir on Christmas morning.

My hands shook.

Nine messages.

The most recent one from my editor. “So exciting! I can’t believe you let me find out from the website!”

Wow. Well. Me, either.

I couldn't focus on my cell phone enough to push all the little buttons and listen to the other calls. I collapsed in front of my computer. Looked on the RWA website.

Well. Wow. I'm a double finalist, for Best Paranormal Romance with IMMORTAL SEA and Best Novella with "Shifting Sea" in BURNING UP.

Yay, yay, oh, really, YAY!!! (And take a deep breath and work on the next book and be happy for my friends who have finaled.)

Next, checking in from Mexico is Ann Aguirre:

I swear, I think this is the first call I ever got. Even when I sold to NY for the first time, my agent IM'd me because it's international long distance. So this was exciting, intoxicating, crazy-with-delight-making. To set the scene, it was early, about fifteen minutes past nine in the morning here, and I was talking to Lauren Dane on IM. One of my friends, Victoria Dahl, had gotten her call, and we were all excited for her, but I wasn't expecting my phone to ring.

And then it did. I didn't say anything to Lauren, but as I ran to answer it, I was thinking, nuh UH, it can't be. But our phone never rings that early, so I had some hope even before I answered. I said, "Bueno!" which is how you answer in Mexico. The person on the other end paused, and then said, "I'm looking for Ann Aguirre." In English. Which was when I knew. Because anyone else would've addressed me in Spanish.

She went on to say, "This is Jeanne Adams from RWA. I'm calling to inform you that your book, KILLBOX, has been chosen as a RITA finalist in the Strong Romantic Elements category..." She told me some more stuff, and was very kind, but I lost my mind after that. I do recall that she said she was a big fan of mine and would be rooting for me in NY. I got some more information from her, and then we disconnected. I ran around my house screaming for a while and then I went to tell Lauren Dane, who I had left hanging in mid-conversation. I told my agent, who was properly thrilled. I twittered about it. I spent four hours surfing an incredible high. Later that night, my family took me out to dinner and to a movie to celebrate (Battle: LA, which is totally appropriate). It was crazy, brilliant, and utterly surreal. I mean, wow, I've finaled in a category that includes Nora Roberts. That pretty much says it all.

Frequent Lair guest, Patricia Rice:

I missed my call! I was doing taxes for AARP Friday morning, and the internet kept crashing, so I was really late leaving, exhausted, stressed out, and starved half to death. I had no idea that it was Call Day, so I grabbed a pear and sat down to check my email while I nuked a Lean Cuisine. The first one I opened was from one of the other Word Wenches, Cara Elliott, shouting she'd been nominated. So out of idle curiosity, I checked my voice mail--something I never do because I'm phone phobic. And sure enough, there was a message from Trish Milburn asking me to call her. Needless to say, my stress disappeared and I was grinning from ear to ear as I munched my nuked pizza! BTW, four of the eight Word Wenches have been nominated, two in historical and two in Regency. Go, us!!!

And speaking of our recent guest Cara Elliott...

The RITA call was all the more wonderful because the day had not gotten off to a great start . . . I awoke to a harried e-mails on a design project I'm working on. Glitches in the web pages needed new files sent ASAP-and I had plans to go to meet friends for lunch at the Thomas Lawrence exhibit at Yale. Swearing under my breath, I was madly working on getting the files done, my mind totally focused on finishing and getting out of the house on time, when the phone rang. Expecting it to be the web designer, I answered rather, er, brusquely.

A soft voice asked for Cara Elliott.

That's a pen name, not my real name, so my first impression was, "How in the world did a fan get my home phone number? (Clearly my head was still in a funk) So I said-again, rather brusquely-“May I ask who's calling?”

The voice replied, “Lorraine Heath.”

Lorraine Heath! Gulp. It slowly sinks in. March 25, writers, phone calls . . . RITAs!

Lorraine went on to say, “I have some good news for you . . .”

Needless to say, I started dancing madly on my chair while stammering my thanks. And then suddenly those files didn't seem quite so odious to finish. Off they went, and I got to my lunch-which was with fellow romance writers, which made it all the more fun to share the good news!

From Romantic Suspense Rita finalist Annie Solomon:

I'd just finished breakfast when the phone rang. I thought: Who the #$# is calling me so early in the am? I checked the caller ID and it was unfamiliar. I was really pissed. Almost didn't answer. But finally I yanked the phone off the hook, ready to yell at whoever was on the other end for calling so early...and this nice, polite woman said she was calling on behalf of RWA.

Gulp...heart pounding...the rest is RITA finalist history, lol!

Moving on to Historical Rita finalist, Sherry Thomas:

Usually I am not a nervous person, possibly because usually I have no idea what's going on. :-) Take the RITAs, for example, in 2009 and 2010, the calls came early in the morning, right after I'd come back home from walking the Junior Kidlet to school, before I'd even realized what date it was. This time, however, I began working before waking the kidlet up, and while using the dictionary widget on my macbook, I happened to glance at the calendar widget, and the 25 was highlighted.

Too bad, a second later, I remembered that RITA calls went out on the 25th. This set me slight on edge. I am not a hoper--is that a word?--and usually prefer to first mentally prepare myself for the worst that can happen. And when 8:30 came and went, I thought, well, that's probably it. The calls have gone out and I didn't get mine.

Then at 8:37 the phone rang. I scrambled to get it. Ack. The number of a known telemarketer. I pressed the rejection button really hard and muttered something under my breath. And then, just as I was walking away from the phone, it rang again. And this time it was Cindy Kirk from RWA. There is an old Turkish proverb that goes: When Allah wants to make a poor man happy, He takes away the man's goat and then lets him find it again. And boy, when I got the call after thinking I wouldn't, did it make me happy!

Another DOUBLE Rita finalist and recent guest, Kieran Kramer:

Here's my call story. I was working on my computer in the kitchen about 9 a.m., deeply immersed in a story I was writing...

Not!

I was roaming the Internet to see if anyone had gotten the Call yet, LOL!!!!

I'd barely had time to settle in when my phone rang. It was an area code I didn't recognize, so my heart gave a little leap. But then I reminded myself that I get spam calls from unknown areas all the time. Why should Friday, March 25th, be any different?

But this time, it was. I'd been nominated for Best First Book. The feeling was so surreal, I felt a little disconnected. I couldn't believe it was really happening. But that wasn't the most shocking part of all to my call story! I had NO IDEA that if you finaled in more than one category, a different category coordinator would call. So there I was, my head already spinning, thinking I'd already climbed to the mountain top, when forty minutes later, I got another call from a different unknown area code.

I thought, "Oh. That's weird. Maybe this is someone from the RWA offices reminding me to look for my Rita information packet in the mail."

So when I picked up the phone and Lorraine Heath herself--a Rita winner and NYT- and USA Today best-selling author--was on the other end of the line, I had to grab a chair. What could she possibly want with me? I'd already gotten the Call! And then she proceeded to tell me that I'd finalled in Regency Historicals, too. That call really threw me--even more than the first. I think it's because I knew the first was possible. I'd entered the contest, so I might--just might!--get a call. But the second call? I was truly taken aback. It's been a long time since I was that surprised.

I was babbling into the phone even more than the first call and have no idea what I said.

It was a morning I will never forget!!!

Finally, Lair favorite Nicola Cornick summed it up so well:

It is a huge thrill to receive a RITA nomination for One Wicked Sin and to be a finalist alongside so many fabulous authors whose books I love and whose writing I admire. "The RITA Call" was an amazing experience! It was the first time I had taken "the call" in person and I didn't exactly receive the news in a calm and collected manner. First I was so excited I couldn't breathe then I became incoherent because I was completely overwhelmed. Certainly the dog was looking at me as though he thought I needed urgent medical attention as my squeals of excitement bounced off the kitchen walls. So much for the famous British cool formality!

Congratulations to all the finalists and thank you to the Romance Bandits for inviting me to your RITA Special!

And now a "call story" from the other side of the phone line....

Its 9 a.m. on "call day" and, as a member of the RWA Board, I have my super-secret call list in front of me, and I'm ready to call my first Rita/GH finalist. I had taken my list and organized them by time-zone, east coast to west so I wouldn't call someone in CA at some unholy hour of the morning. All set there, I was ready to dial. It is seriously one of THE BEST moments of a Board Member's time on the board to get to make these calls. SO fun!Anyway, I'm ready to rock, I've got my coffee, I'm mostly awake...dial. Got a voice mail! Arrrrgh! So, I leave a message, very similar to what I said to Ann Aguirre (yes, we DO have a script! ahahah!) "Hi, this is Jeanne...RWA Board...Trying to reach you...try back in a bit, or you can call me at..." I hang up and go on to my next call. About 20 minutes later, my phone rings and it's my friend and fellow WRW member, Gail Barrett. I had SO hoped Gail would final because MELTDOWN is fabulous, and if she did final, that she'd be on my "to call" list. She did final, of course, but she wasn't on MY list! Arrrgh! I had the person just below her on the list. Are you beginning to see what happened? *wince* So Gail calls me, "Hi Jeanne, it's Gail."

I have a very silent, and quite painful apoplectic fit, because I can't tell her ANYTHING. She's not on my list.

"Hi Gail! How are you?" I manage to brightly say, feigning total ignorance of what's going on. There's a pause.

"I'm great, but you left a message on MY machine for this Kendra person...."

OH, CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!!! What can I say, but, "Oh, so sorry!" and get off the phone. WHEW!!! Gail posted later that she was so crestfallen that, at the time, she didn't wonder why I even had her number up and ready to go, nor why I might call her by mistake early on a Friday morning... none of that thankfully, registered. Now I had to wait until I saw her name pop up on the RWA site, to be SURE my fellow Board Member had called her, so I could then call back and apologize! Hahahah! Gail took it with her usual good grace and aplomb, since thankfully she had actually finaled. Grins. And I was able to tell her how very much I had enjoyed her finaling book, MELTDOWN, and that her number, right above the one I was SUPPOSED to call, is what I'd written down instead. Probably something Freudian in there...

It really was fun to call Ann as well *waves at Ann* because I am a fan, thanks to her coming on here to the Romance Bandits blog. Grins.

Ya'll will laugh because I started out those first few West Coast calls apologizing for calling so early - hey, it WAS early for THEM! - then telling the finalist the news. I wasn't sure Ann even heard the bit about calling so early, or being a fan, but hey, I guess she did! Hahahah!

*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Now do you understand the significance of 'Call Day'?" Sven asked as he led the round-eyed Paolo back to the kitchen.

Paolo nodded still struck dumb in astonishment. Sven loaded a tray with mimosas, handed it to the silent cabana boy and gave him a push toward the door. "Then don't you forget it next year! Now make sure none of our guests are thirsty."

Some of our guests have offered copies of their books as a prize for our special celebration. One lucky commenter will receive a copy of:
One Wicked Sin
When Harry Met Molly AND Dukes to the Left of Me, Princes to the Right
His at Night
Killbox
Immortal Sea

So which do you prefer, chocolate chip cookies or mimosas? Do you forgive Paolo for his ignorance? And what makes a celebration special for you?